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The FNB Johannesburg Art Fair held last week is one of Africa’s biggest contemporary art fairs and Zimbabwe is always represented at the fair.
In previous years the National Gallery of Zimbabwe, via its Chief Curator Raphael Chikukwa, has been invited for the talks programme.
At this year’s fair, booth number 73 proved popular as hundreds of people from all walks of life chose to pause and appreciate the Zimbabwean presence.
The booth had a minimal layout showcasing three works by veteran artist Chikonzero Chazunguza. This exhibition was titled, Seuswa/Akin to Grass.
For one art enthusiast from Cape Town, the Zimbabwe booth made a profound impression: “This is the best booth I have seen so far, it is so touching. It reminds me of what I saw when I visited Robben Island. It reminds me of my history as a Xhosa.”
For an elderly couple from Europe, the Zimbabwe booth was a reminder of so many good memories of the country.
“Your booth makes us want to visit again,” said the elderly couple.
One of the visitors who fought back tears, observed: “It is so touching, it is so real and urgent.”
Every visitor left with a different interpretation of the work. A group of local school children debated about whether or not the work had undertones of race relations. Such pertinent questions for young people in South Africa, weeks after debates about hair, language and money in their school systems blew up on social media.
Three academics agreed that the Zimbabwean work at the art fair was meant to encourage Africans to document and celebrate unsung heroes from recent history. Later, a couple of writers saw the work as a provocation for people to unite. Chazunguza’s work consisted of two large silk screen prints and a two-screen video/performance piece. For the prints, the artist took archival images from the Herero Genocide that took place in Namibia between 1904 and 1907, as well as Ndebele leaders from the uprising which was one of the first forms of protest in the late 1890s again colonialism.
Within the video work, the artist performed. One saw his bare feet walking on a carpet of brown and white slices of bread. This was juxtaposed with his black silhouette being immersed in a makeshift throne of maize meal. The video work is titled, Tigere Muhupfu which means we are sitting pretty.
Chazunguza has exhibited on many international platforms, including at the Zimbabwe Booth at the 2015 Venice Biennale. He is the founder of Dzimbanhete Arts Interactions, a platform for local and international cultural collaborations and a space where artists are encouraged to tap into their inner roots for creativity. Most likely, his visibility and presence at the FNB Jo’burg Art Fair will birth many more opportunities for collaborations, exhibitions and exchanges.
Other Zimbabwean spaces present at the fair included Village Unhu, which exhibited for the second time in a row.
Other art spaces participating included The First Floor Gallery. Several South African and a British gallery proudly displayed Zimbabwean artists including Masimba Hwati, Virginia Chihota, Moffart Takadiwa, Misheck Masamvu and Kudzanai Chiurai.
With the global art market gaze returning to Africa, this art fair attracts auction houses, dealers, renowned collectors, curators and creatives from all over the world.
The fair consisted of 90 exhibitions by galleries from 12 different countries and ran from September 9, 2016 to September 11, 2016.
These exhibitions were subdivided into Contemporary and Modern Art, Special Projects, Gallery Solo Projects, Limited Editions and Art Platforms.
Mandla Sibeko Co-Director of the art fair explained: “We are very clear on our Agenda; we are positioning the Fair as Pan-African. We want as many Africans to support this platform every year”.
As an international art fair, the FNB Jo’burg Art Fair focused on contemporary art from the African continent and the Diaspora.
FNB has always been passionate about art because it recognises that artistic expression involves creativity and imagination — both key drivers of innovation.
The annual FNB Jo’burg Art Fair provides a platform for more than 600 artists from across the continent and continues to draw a huge array of creative individuals and art connoisseurs from across the globe.
The FNB Jo’burg Art Fair continues to play an important role in harnessing the value that artists bring to society and has thus established itself as the meeting place for those interested in African contemporary art.
The demand to attend the FNB Jo’burg Art Fair continues to exceed expectations, ultimately situating it as an important stage for both artists and galleries. Currently, there’s no better showcase and experience in the art scene on the continent.
The following captures observations from various visitors from all walks of life about the artworks that captured their attention and caused them to stop and think.
Tshepang Dumelakgosi, Student, on Gerhard Marx at Goodman Gallery: “What I like about Gerhard Marx is that he’s using things that people wouldn’t normally use for art. He used an actual map, the atlas that in a way, tells a story about the people viewing it as well as the place in question. I like the fact that he’s able to draw a picture or use a picture that’s already in the lines of the atlas itself. I also just love the human aspect that’s present here. Although it’s just a map, there are people that live there.”
Jess Jindrich and Natasha Brown — Grace Cross at SMITH: Fine art students at Wits: “This piece is super visceral. Ja! it’s really yummy. The paints have been caked on. It’s kind of Penny Siopis, but in a different kind of child-like way. So Ja, it’s just really visceral and delicious.”
Lerato Bereng — Zanele Muholi at Stevenson Gallery, Associate director at Stevenson:
“So this is a Zanele Moholi photograph from her Somnyama Ngonyama series which means ‘Hail the black lioness’. It looks at black skin and plays with the idea of black and white photography and the tonalities of skin and creating different personas. It’s a self-portrait series, she takes a different photograph every day, wherever she is and with whatever she finds around her to create these powerful black women personas. She’s an incredibly powerful black woman so I find this very inspiring.”
Candice Cruse on FNB Featured Artist Wangechi Mutu, Independent curator and artist:
“If you view this in conjunction with Wangechi’s film, the kind of mythological creature lying in this space is indicative of so many people’s personal mythologies. The collection of East African objects and the use of the colour black with the lush texture of velvet is almost evil in its beauty. It makes you want to touch it. Reading up on different mythologies around Africa, you realise that we all collect our own things and we all create our own narratives . . . which I suppose eventually do become mythology. I just find this work so intriguing; I can’t stop looking at it. It’s magnificent.”
Cow Mash and Marilise Snyman, Fine art students at TUT, on Andrzej Urbanski at Salon 91:
Cow Mash: “So this is part of Cape Town’s Salon 91 booth and it’s Andrzej’s work right, so he was telling us how he likes to work with rulers so obviously it’s very geometric. I automatically go for dark work, everything dark jumps out at me and I also study sculpture so I saw this sculptural work by him which is geometric. At first I was standing afar and I was looking at the different planes and I thought that he must have matted one side, but actually it’s all shiny, it’s just the way that it’s placed that gives it so many different dimensions. I stood here for so long, probably the longest time I spent in a booth just because this sculptural work speaks so much to me.”
Marilise Snyman: “This is a work by Andrzej Urbanski and I really love the shape of the canvas, it’s so interesting. I immediately thought how difficult it must have been to stretch a canvas like this. The shape of it also accentuates the shapes inside the canvas itself without distracting your eye. You get this feeling of a futuristic, technological idea being put forward in the work. He also started out doing design and graffiti so it’s nice to see his work inside a gallery using the traditional mediums of paint and canvas.”
Lewis Thomas, Owner and founder of Partners Hair Design, on Georgina Gratrix at SMAC Gallery:
“Okay look, I’m a big fan of Georgina’s work. I could recognise this as being one of her works from 100km away. I love the soft, delicate shades and I love the fun aspects of it – all of the little shards of ceramic and the little kinds of four carrot diamonds that have been put in there. I love the serendipity and the way that she works with complete freedom with her strokes, where nothing’s stiff. It can go into anybody’s house really, it’s got a multitude of colours, any colour you can think of is here. And just the spontaneity of it all, like how she popped this lobster here and the little bird saying hello over there. It’s brilliant.”
Gillian Fleisschmann, Fine art student at Wits on Karel Nel: “It’s amazing to see Karel Nel’s work because you know, he’s just such a humble person and to have him as my professor at Wits is a great experience. I know first year students are often troublesome and we’re the babies of the university, but he’s just a really nice person to work with. I feel like we’re all his groupies, so to see his work on display is great and as an aspiring artist myself it really gives me something to work towards.”
Andile Buka, Photographer, on Zohra Opoku: “This is work by Zohra Opoku and basically she works with second hand clothing and material. What she does is hang these items on a tree or an electric pole and she does these self-portraits, but instead of using normal paper to print, she uses cotton. These are my favourites out of her body of work.
I don’t have the courage to put myself in front of the camera so I think her work really encourages me to venture out into stuff like self-portraiture. I really admire the bravery in her work.” — Panorama Magazine.
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